Instruments on the Soyuz rocket registered data about the lightning strike and transferred the information with its regular telemetry to the control center in the kosmodrom on the ground.

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& # 39; During the launch, lightning struck the nose tank and the third stage of the launcher, & # 39; told an unidentified source in the Russian space industry Russian press agency TASS.

& # 39; The incident did not affect the operation of the carrier missile systems, because Soyuz spacecraft are equipped with the protection mechanism against such phenomena, & # 39; added the source.

According to the instruments onboard the spacecraft, the electrical discharge hit the Soyuz both at its nose and at the third booster segment (pictured)

Lightning strikes on rockets can be rare, but they are not without precedent.

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The Saturn V rocket that brought the Apollo 12 mission to the moon was hit twice by lightning as it ascended the atmosphere on November 14, 1969.

The resulting power surge resulted in the fuel cells and instrumentation of command and service modules being taken offline and disrupting telemetry with NASA & # 39; s mission control in Houston, Texas.

Rapid thinking from ground-based flight controller John Aaron and spacecraft system engineer Alan Bean aboard the rocket brought the command module systems back online by switching to a backup power supply.

Fortunately, the lightning had not caused serious permanent damage and carried the mission to the moon as intended.

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Lightning strikes on rockets are not without precedent. The Saturn V rocket carrying the Apollo 12 mission to the moon (pictured during launch) was struck twice by lightning as it ascended the atmosphere on November 14, 1969

The Soyuz 2 carrier launch, the first from the Cosmodrome this year, carried a replacement GLONASS-M satellite in orbit. Pictured: a GLONASS-M model that was shown at the CeBIT computing conference in 2011

The weather on the day of the Apollo 12 launch was cloudy, but not stormy – making the strikes themselves somewhat unexpected.

A NASA investigation into the incident it later turned out that & # 39; lightning can be caused by the presence of the long electrical length created by the spacecraft and the exhaust plume in an electric field that would not otherwise have produced a natural lightning. & # 39;

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Nowadays, space organizations have built in extremely strict weather guidelines for rocket launches and lightning protection in both the spacecraft and their launch platforms.

For example, NASA regulations prohibit rockets from being fired if there is more than a 20 percent chance of lightning striking within five miles of the launch site.

Electric field activity around rocket centers is closely monitored.

Similarly, rocket launches are only permitted if no lightning or storm clouds have been observed within 10 miles (16 km) of the rocket flight path.

Launch platforms are usually equipped with lightning rods to prevent direct attacks on their missiles before they are launched.

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& # 39; The weather is not an obstacle and we (the space power of the Russian aerospace troops) are all-weather troops, & # 39; told head of the cosmodrome major general Nikolai Nestechuk RT.

Although the Soyuz rocket was carrying a civilian satellite, the Cosmodrome of Plesetsk is a Russian military facility.

& # 39; The launch was in normal mode, & # 39; Major General Nestechuk added.

Regardless of the strike, the carrier rocket continued in its planned low-earth orbit, where it delivered the load of a radio-based navigation satellite. Shown: a Soyuz 2-1b rocket on a launch pad at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, in October 2018.

The Roscosmos Soyuz 2-1b rocket roared in the air from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome near Mirny, northern Russia, at 6:23 UTC on May 27, 2019

WHAT IS THE SOJUZ SPACE CRAFT OF RUSSIA?

Soyuz is a Russian spacecraft that transports astronauts and supplies to and from the International Space (ISS) station, but also brings people back to Earth.

It consists of a rocket that carries a capsule in space. After launch, the capsule and the rocket separate, with the rocket returning to earth and the capsule continuing.

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The capsule has space for three passengers and acts as a lifeboat for the ISS, with at least one Soyuz capsule always attached to the space station.

Each capsule consists of three parts, called modules. Crew members spend their time in a job in the Orbit module, which is about the size of a large delivery van.

An American-Russian crew launched to the ISS from Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz rocket on March 21

The descent module is used by astronauts when approaching the ISS or returning to Earth. A third module contains life-supporting systems and instruments, including batteries, solar panels and steering machines.

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Soyuz is launched from Kazakhstan, Russia's southern neighbor, and it takes just six hours to get to the space station. The crew uses the hatch on the Soyuz to enter and leave the station. When the crew is ready to come home, they drive back to earth in the Soyuz capsule.

To land, Soyuz sinks through the Earth's atmosphere and uses parachutes that slow down the decline. When Soyuz comes close to the ground, he fires small rocket engines to further reduce his momentum.